3 Smart Wastewater Treatment
The key to the smart wastewater treatment plant is consistency. A WTW is a system
that is naturally unstable. It is therefore through measurement and control that the
operator can achieve some sort of stability within wastewater treatment in particular
and the wastewater system in its entirety. One of the keys to this lies within the
network, where possible smoothing out of peaks and troughs of instability in the
flows and loads reaching the WTW could provide much more of a stable operating
environment.
There are regulatory drivers (at least in England and Wales) that will push the
industry into an environment that is much more rigid regarding the management of
flows and, like the EDM programme in the wastewater network, will ensure that all
flows that can possibly be treated, are.
The industry is moving towards a factory approach that was proposed by the
Dutch Foundation for Applied Water Research (STOWA) in 2010 when they
described the WTW of 2030 as water, energy and nutrient factories [20]. Their
fundamental point is that the WTW adopts the factory approach, and, as with any
factory, measurement and control is an essential part of managing the “factory”
(system) as a whole.
3.1 Philosophy of Operation
What is the Aim of the WwTW?
The very fundamental aim is to treat wastewater to a standard where it does no harm
to the environment that it is discharged to. This aim is incomplete though, as from an
environmental perspective the aim can be modified to include an element of holistic
environmental cost, insofar as doing no harm to the much wider environment will
include an element of efficiency. It is relatively easy to treat wastewater to a standard
so that virtually pure water leaves the treatment plant; however, the prohibitive
energy and chemical costs to do this outweigh the overall environmental benefit.
This is where the aspect of the resource factory comes into play. Which products
are available from a WwTW and how do we use the factory approach to produce
them?
The products that can be produced from a WwTW are:
1. Water of varying qualities
2. Biosolids (rich in nutrients and used as a soil conditioner)
3. Phosphorus (as a fertiliser additive)
4. Energy and Biofuels (either directly as electricity or as a liquid gas)
5. Low-grade heating water
6. Cooling water (for use in data centres or other applications)
7. Plastics
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O. Grievson
The key to the smart wastewater treatment plant is consistency. A WTW is a system
that is naturally unstable. It is therefore through measurement and control that the
operator can achieve some sort of stability within wastewater treatment in particular
and the wastewater system in its entirety. One of the keys to this lies within the
network, where possible smoothing out of peaks and troughs of instability in the
flows and loads reaching the WTW could provide much more of a stable operating
environment.
There are regulatory drivers (at least in England and Wales) that will push the
industry into an environment that is much more rigid regarding the management of
flows and, like the EDM programme in the wastewater network, will ensure that all
flows that can possibly be treated, are.
The industry is moving towards a factory approach that was proposed by the
Dutch Foundation for Applied Water Research (STOWA) in 2010 when they
described the WTW of 2030 as water, energy and nutrient factories [20]. Their
fundamental point is that the WTW adopts the factory approach, and, as with any
factory, measurement and control is an essential part of managing the “factory”
(system) as a whole.
3.1 Philosophy of Operation
What is the Aim of the WwTW?
The very fundamental aim is to treat wastewater to a standard where it does no harm
to the environment that it is discharged to. This aim is incomplete though, as from an
environmental perspective the aim can be modified to include an element of holistic
environmental cost, insofar as doing no harm to the much wider environment will
include an element of efficiency. It is relatively easy to treat wastewater to a standard
so that virtually pure water leaves the treatment plant; however, the prohibitive
energy and chemical costs to do this outweigh the overall environmental benefit.
This is where the aspect of the resource factory comes into play. Which products
are available from a WwTW and how do we use the factory approach to produce
them?
The products that can be produced from a WwTW are:
1. Water of varying qualities
2. Biosolids (rich in nutrients and used as a soil conditioner)
3. Phosphorus (as a fertiliser additive)
4. Energy and Biofuels (either directly as electricity or as a liquid gas)
5. Low-grade heating water
6. Cooling water (for use in data centres or other applications)
7. Plastics
126
O. Grievson